January 25, 2016 - Islandhopping Thailand

Last month I’ve been traveling in Thailand and visiting a few of the more than 100 islands that this diverce country is known for. In this blog I share some travelwords about my favorites Koh Chang, Koh Lanta and Koh Phangan.

Koh Chang

Koh Chang is the second largest island from Thailand next to Phuket. From Bangkok it’s about a 4 to 5 hour drive to get there and it’s a very popular destination for people who are on their way to Cambodia. You can find a lot of restaurants, bars, Seven Elevens and streetfood on the island so you can nourish yourself with nice food and cold drinks. The good thing about the island is that you can have many days of relaxing or get active, do several jungle trekkings and go explore the underwater world while snorkeling and diving. The most popular and crowded beaches like Lonely Beach are at the southwest coast of the island. I stayed at White Sand Beach which is in the north. It is a little bit more expensive then Lonely Beach, but you can also find really nice accomodations for good prices if you are willing to stroll the beach with your backpack and ask around. I slept in a wooden bungalow right on the beach. Every morning I woke up with the sound of the waves rolling in and every night I went to sleep after counting the immense amount of stars up in the moon lit sky. The sunsets have my most precious memories. Every night the sky transformed magically from blue into pink, orange and red. This whole range of colors are flashing by in about one hour. I would defenilty recommend the island if you don’t have a lot of time to travel to the south but still want to have a nice island expierence.

Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta is on the southwest coast of Thailand and is easy accesible by boat from places like Krabi or Phuket. The atmosphere was so relaxing and I felt very comfortable here. I rented a scooter (which I recommand to do on every island) and tried to find some nice nature spots. In the southern part of the island you can find a National Park which is ruled by monkeys. They will sit on the side of the road or on the motorbike next to you while parking and stare at you. It is always hard to figure out if they’re just chilling out or trying to find a way to take your precious camera. Take the one hour trail and end up on the most perfect and quiet beach of the island. Be careful with your belongings because the monkeys will steal them from you while you are taking a dip in the water. Koh Lanta has a perfect vibe and you can easily stay there for a few days. Also a good option is to take a boat from here to the smaller islands like Koh Ngai and Koh Lipe, which are close to the Malaysian border.

Koh Phangan

I absolutely loved Phangan. I didn’t know what to expect from this island because I heard all these contradicting stories. On one hand it’s backpackers party paradise with the full moon parties and on the other hand there is this big spiritual community living on the island, a lot of different yoga places and you can join different retreats. But what I didn’t know was that 90% the island is covered by nature. Palm trees everywhere, the soft breeze made the leaves dance around while you would see the next beach coming up from behind the hill. To me, the island had a good combination of everything. I did some dancing and also spent time in the nature and driving around stopping for all the lovely beaches Phangan has. The mountainious east coast from the island is far less crowded and much more unexplored with steep vulcano hills run down the sheer cliffs that dominate the rugged coastline. There is only one way to get there and that’s a road that goes straight from west to east. At first I thought I might have taken a wrong turn because I found myself on a old broken down asfalt road that looked like it came straight out of a post-apocaliptic movie where nature has taken back what was once claimed and build on by man. But eventually it led to some beautiful places. Thong Nai Pan in the east and Maibu beach in the north were the beaches you had to drag me away or I would have stayed there forever. At Thong Nai Pan beach you will have a lot of big waves coming for you. I spent some time in the sea and felt mother natures never ending force coming at me. I might last a few rounds but in the end I left the water satisfied but beaten down, time for a cold drink on the beach. Koh Phangan will pleasantly surprise you no matter what you are expecting. It has it all.